Israel Has 115 Nuclear Warheads, U.S. Research Institute Says

Israel produced 660 Kg of plutonium in its nuclear reactor in Dimona, and used it to make 115 nuclear warheads, which it holds in its arsenal today, a study by the Washington D.C.-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) published Friday alleges.

The institute, headed by David Albright, aims at professional analysis and doesn’t take an anti-Israeli stance. The report on Israel’s nuclear program is a chapter in a series on the civil and military programs of nuclear nations.

According to the institute’s researchers, since starting to produce plutonium in its Dimona reactor, in December 1963, Israel has amassed between 400 to 915 Kg of fissile material, with a median of 660 Kg. According to Albright, the assessment is relatively conservative, since in the 1990s one of the former heads of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission told him that plutonium was “harder to produce than many think.”